Reassembled
by lazerbear7
Summary: After losing her arm in the fall of Beacon, Ruby thought her dreams of becoming a huntress were shattered. However, what she finds in herself is a way to make herself stronger.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note:

As a preface to this, I'd like to say that this is essentially a re-write of my other unfinished story, "Reforge" so it's going to use those themes and all that, but with a reworked setting to make it easier to move along. So with that in mind, thank you for reading, and if you liked "Reforge" I highly recommend you follow this one too. And of course, leave a review and tell me what you thought.

* * *

Ruby could remember the wind whipping past her face as she sprinted up the side of Beacon Tower as quickly as the runes beneath her feet could carry her. Somewhere in the distance, the dragon Grimm bellowed out a deafening roar, but Ruby couldn't afford to let her attention waver for so much as a second. The edge of the tower had seemed to take an far too long to reach her, but at the same time, there was no way she could have been ready.

She'd pulled herself over the edge just in time to see an arrow pierce Pyrrha's ankle, bringing her to the ground while Cinder stood over her, a smile wrapping around her face. Cinder had started to circle Pyrrha, speaking as she did so.

"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours."

She put a finger under Pyrrha's chin, ceasing her struggle to regain her footing and tilting her gaze up.

"But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in way you never could have imagined."

Ruby's body had locked up at the edge of the roof, a sense of dread clouding her mind.

Pyrrha pulled away from Cinder's hand, looking the woman directly in the face. Her eyes were hard, defiant. Despite being at Cinder's mercy, she hadn't given up yet.

"Do you believe in destiny?"

Cinder's eyes hardened as well, and in a gravely serious voice, she responded.

"Yes."

She brought her hands up, bow forming in her hands. As she drew back the string, an arrow knocking itself seemingly from nowhere. At that moment, a surge of fire had flushed through Ruby's veins, and she catapulted forwards, Crescent Rose flared out behind her. A trail of petals streamed in her wake as she closed the distance between them, and brought Crescent Rose arcing down towards Cinder.

Despite having the element of surprise on her side, Cinder's reaction time was far quicker than Ruby had thought it would be. In the instant before Ruby's hit landed, Cinder pivoted and loosed her shot into Ruby's abdomen.

The arrow shattered against her aura, blocking out most of the damage. The broken arrowhead fell away, only for the shaft to hit her, again, only to break off for more of the arrow to strike her. By the time the broken projectile finished its assault, Ruby's aura had been shattered alongside the glass arrow. The force of the attack knocked her back, sending her sliding back towards the edge she just climbed from. She did her best to cling to the smooth metal floor, coming to a stop just as she felt her toes go over the edge.

Pyrrha had looked up at her, eyes wide and reaching out towards her, as if trying to pull her back from the edge.

"Ruby!"

Cinder walked slowly between Ruby and Pyrrha, another arrow forming between her fingers as she tugged at the bowstring.

"Now, let's finish this up, shall we?"

She took aim again at Pyrrha, and straightened up as she readied her shot.

Ruby felt a mad panic take a hold of her, and with the last reserves of her strength, she launched herself forward again. It was difficult to tell if she was using her semblance or not, but she felt like she was practically flying towards Cinder again, despite her body being too exhausted to move properly.

Cinder turned and scowled before bringing a heel up and planting it solidly in Ruby's gut. All of her forward momentum disappeared as the stiletto heel slid between her abdominal muscles, and everything started to look fuzzy. Ruby slowly peeled her eyes away from Cinder to look down at the wound, marveling at how it hurt so much, yet was somehow still not much more than a dull ache.

Cinder gave a final push with her leg sending Ruby stumbling away. Trying to catch herself was impossible, it was all she could have done to aim herself for one of the pillars of debris that remained from the roof being torn away. She smacked shoulder-first into it, knocking several of the bricks near the top loose, which went tumbling over the edge.

Ruby did her best to turn back to Cinder, but as she did so, she instead found an arrow flying towards her. One heartbeat later, she felt the arrowhead drive into the shoulder joint of her left arm. In the next instant a wave of pain traveled through her body as the arrow scraped along the back of her scapula, before striking the wall behind her and shattering. Muscles and tendons were sliced apart, and her nerves were set ablaze as the shaft of the arrow embedded itself into the wall.

For a moment Ruby writhed in pain, doing her best to put pressure on the wound without breaking the glass shaft. Everything went dark for several seconds and Ruby could feel herself starting to drift away. While it did dull the pain, she knew she couldn't let herself go into shock. She grit her teeth as hard as she could, and fought to stay conscious.

As her vision returned to her, she saw Pyrrha trying to crawl towards her, tears streaming down her face. Cinder followed behind, mouth moving like she was talking, but Ruby couldn't hear anything beyond a droning buzz.

Cinder stopped, nocking another arrow, and made one last comment to Pyrrha. Whatever it was, it made Pyrrha stop dead in her tracks, then turn to face her. As soon as she turned, Cinder loosed another arrow, and Ruby could just see the fletchings over Pyrrha's shoulder spouting from her chest.

Pyrrha seized up and made what looked like a few shuddering attempts to speak as Cinder approached. Then, finally, as Cinder reached out a hand to Pyrrha's temple, she went limp. Her whole body flared with a warm orange light, as though she had been wrapped in a cloak of soft flame. The next thing Ruby knew, Pyrrha was falling apart before her eyes. Collapsing and blowing away as though she was made of nothing more than dust.

No matter how hard Ruby tried, she couldn't avert her tear-filled eyes. She watched as Pyrrha Nikos, one of the top students at Beacon Academy, and one of her best friends, was scattered to the wind.

That was when things became too disconnected, too disjointed to make any sense of. The last thing that Ruby could remember solidly was the feeling of her tears bubbling away as everything faded to white. Then all of the pain was gone.

* * *

Ruby wiped her eyes, sniffling as she realized that she'd been crying again. That happened a lot these days, it seemed. Whenever she wasn't occupied with something else her mind wandered back to that night, almost six months ago now, repeating over and over again. Had there been something she missed? There had to be.

Absentmindedly, she reached for one of the books next to the chair she sat in. It was something her father had been looking through. It was about the workings of engines, or similar mechanics, judging by the bisected engine on the cover.

For a few moments, she continued to reach, becoming increasingly confused and frustrated at why nothing seemed to be happening. After a few more moments, she made to hit the armrest in frustration, but the thump she was expecting didn't come.

Her heart seemed to turn to a hole in her chest as she looked down, and found the limp sleeve that had taken the place of her left arm. With a tired sigh, she leaned back in her chair, turning her eyes towards the ceiling and staring blankly.

Why did she forget? It happened at least once a day, sometimes more, and every time it made her feel awful. But the thing that really got to her was that it felt like it was still there. When she wasn't thinking about how her arm was gone, she could feel it at her side, or resting on her lap, and even respond when she tried to move it. 'Phantom Limb Syndrome' was what they'd called it. There wasn't much that could be done about it, outside of some slow-going therapy sessions.

She put her right arm up the bottom of her shirt, and rubbed her fingertips against the bandages. There wasn't really anything left of her arm. The whole thing had needed to be amputated after her confrontation with Cinder. It was the glass from the arrows, the doctors had said. If the shots had been regular arrows, there would have been a much better chance of saving it, but the shards Cinder had left behind were simply too sharp and numerous, there simply wasn't much left to save. Ruby had to wonder if Cinder had caused her this much pain on purpose, or if it had simply been a coincidence. In her head, Pyrrha's final words echoed in her mind.

She wasn't sure anything was coincidence anymore. Beacon, one of the most prodigious schools in the world, had been brought down and burned by a plot to destroy it from within. And the worst part was that she didn't even know why.

Somewhere else in the house, a door creaked open, and heavy boot steps shook the floorboards slightly. Yang's voice came from down the hall, accompanied by the skittering sound of Zwei running around her feet.

"Ruby! Where are you? You still want to train today?"

She continued to stare at the ceiling, breathing a deep sigh as she remembered that she'd had told Yang she wanted to train. She didn't know why she tried anymore. She couldn't even hold Crescent Rose properly anymore, or fire it, or fight in much of any capacity at all.

With sluggish movement, she pushed herself up from the comfy chair.

"I'm in here! Give me a minute."

With a chipper "Okay" from her sister, Ruby started making her way back to her room. Crescent Rose sat on her desk, countless tools laid out all around it and an oily rag keeping the desk from being scuffed too much.

She picked it up, and took a moment to feel the weight. It still felt off. No matter how many times she changed things around, swapped weights, altered grips, in her hand the weapon still felt off. She just couldn't adjust properly to using her right arm.

Crescent Rose at her side, she turned to leave. When she walked out the door to her room, she found Yang leaning against the opposite wall, with Zwei looking up at her, panting excitedly. She smiled and put an arm out as Ruby approached.

"What have you been doing today? I didn't hear you tinkering like you usually do."

Ruby nodded as she let Yang put her arm over her shoulder, and walk the both of them down the stairs.

"Dad didn't get me up this morning, so I slept until noon. I think he just forgot, he was out getting groceries when I woke up."

Yang snorted, saying, "You know, I can get you up too if you want. It wouldn't be any trouble."

Ruby shook her head, her shoulders slouching down a little further. Sleeping late was nice. Staying in her bed was something that she could still enjoy.

"No, don't worry about it. It's fine."

Yang kept staring at her for a moment, before turning her head forward again, with a look of deep concentration on her face. It was an expression that Ruby was getting more and more used to seeing Yang use. It was the 'something's wrong with my sister, and I want to fix it' look. Ruby had to admit, Yang never gave up on trying to make her smile whenever she could, but both sisters could tell that it wasn't getting easier.

Jaune, Ren, and Nora had come to visit a few times since Beacon had fallen, and they kept in contact, but it had been a few weeks since they had come around last, and there was no sign that they would be able to come soon. With Beacon being down, there was no shortage of Huntsman work to be done, even by trainees. They were doing well on their own, all things considered. They were even starting to build up a considerable amount of money, nothing to brag about, but about as well as three trainee Hunters could hope to do.

When the two reached the yard, Yang walked about fifteen feet away from Ruby and turned, putting Ember Celica on as she did so.

"Alright, so what did you want to work on?"

Ruby kicked the dirt for a moment, covering a mark she left last time after a particularly bad fall. Yang did a few basic stretches, while Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose. She had to shrink down the blade by a good deal. Though only a few inches shorter, she had to cut away a lot of its mass just to keep it swingable. She also had to cut back on the power of her shots to keep them controllable. If it wasn't for her dad, she might have taken her own head off the first time she tried shooting with one arm.

"Can we just focus on swings for today? I'm not in the mood to do an actual spar."

Yang gave a silent nod and took up a more defensive stance than she normally prefered. Both arms close to her center, and fist up, she placed her right foot forward. Ruby on the other hand did a few flourishes with her blade, swinging it around her body, both to hide when she'd strike as well as to build up momentum. Her uncle had shown her an old manual from ages past. Though her scythe wasn't a direct comparison to their massive great swords, the style of flowing from one attack to the next certainly improved her fighting abilities.

Yang took a step back as Ruby stepped towards her. She almost dashed in, seeing an opportunity to rush her and stop weapon, but she held off. Ruby finally got into a comfortable pace, and with a slide of her finger, Crescent Rose's head stretched back, slashing out low at the blonde brawler. Yang easily hopped over the blade, holding back from another opportunity to stop the blade and counter.

As the blade passed by, Ruby slid her finger back. The scythe's head retracted to its normal position as she brought it around into a high overhead strike. The dirt split beneath the blade as the scythe planted itself. Anchored into the solid ground, Ruby once more made Crescent Rose extent its head, but with the blade unable to move, the shaft instead pulled on Ruby. Yang found herself surprised by the move, and barely had enough time to raise her guard to block a powerful kick from her sister. The force of her sister being thrown forward knocked her back onto her behind, while Ruby swung around the shaft. She intended to use her momentum to yank Crescent Rose out of the ground, but found that her fingers weren't strong enough to keep their grip. They came loose, and she went spinning through the air towards Yang without any control.

Yang ducked under her sister as she flew past, hitting the ground and yelping as she started rolling. Ruby put her arm out to try and stop herself, but was forced to simply cover her face and wait for her momentum to die down.

Yang Rushed over to Ruby's side, and when she knelt down over her, she found tears streaming down Ruby's face.

"Oh, come on, Ruby! You were doing good! Maybe just-"

Ruby's knuckles pounded the dirt as she cried out, "I can't do it! I'm useless now, Yang! I can't do anything!"

Her knuckles made an unpleasant popping sound as she struck the ground again, and she clenched her teeth as she rolled over, holding her hand close to her chest. Yang watched for a moment, waiting to see if Ruby was done, before gently putting her hands on her shoulders.

"You don't mean that. It's just frustrating. You've got more than enough reason to be mad, but you just have to push through it! I can't imagine what I'd do if I were in your shoes, but I'm sure you're doing a lot better than I would be! And sure, it might seem impossible now, but you know what else seemed impossible? My dopey little baby sister ever learning to use a scythe. Do you remember how you looked?"

She paused, and after a moment, Ruby sniffled and nodded.

"Then I don't even need to tell you how amazing it was to see you turn into a scythe-wielding badass through the next few years!"

She got back to her feet, gingerly helping Ruby up with her.

"You just need to push. Not right now, give yourself some time to cool off, but you've never stopped pushing before, and I know you won't now."

She left her sister for a moment to pick Crescent Rose out of the ground, examining it as she returned.

"And besides, you aren't useless. You've been tinkering with this almost as long as I can remember, and you're better at tinkering than anyone I've ever met. I don't know an awful lot about that, but I know you don't need two hands to do it. Not when you're as good as you are."

Ruby wiped her face on her sleeve as Yang held the scythe out to her, and with a shaky hand, took Crescent Rose from her sister. Without another word, both of them started back towards the house.

It was a few hours later when their father returned, and he did so with several large bags of groceries under his arms and a wry smile on his face. Ruby and Yang were both seated in the living room when he came through the door. "Hey, girls. Good day?" he asked as he walked over to each of them, leaning over to give them a kiss. Ruby sat up to present her cheek to him, only for Tai to pull away at the last second as a few of the bags threatened to slip from his hands. He took a second to balance his baggage before looking back down at Ruby with a smile.

"Let me go set these down real quick, then I think I've got a little surprise for you guys."

He shouldered his way through the kitchen door, and Yang got up to follow, intending to ask if he'd remembered to pick up a few things she had asked him to get. Ruby stayed seated, watching her father and Yang leave the room with a tired expression.

When Yang entered, something distracted her. An oddly shaped package was stuck in the middle of the bunch, jutting out at a strange angle. She walked over to the table as her father turned to put the groceries away.

It was long and straight, in a slender and very neat looking box. Yang laid it out flat on the table, and asked, "What's this?"

Her father raised an eyebrow as he turned, and seeing the package Yang was referring to, smiled.

"Something I had to call on a lot of favors to get. It's for Ruby. I think she's really going to like it."


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby eyed her father suspiciously as he set the slender package on the coffee table in front of her. It was a bland grey color, with the black seal of Atlas on the lid. Ruby stood by her father's side, and from the barely restrained look of excitement on their faces, Ruby could tell that something was up.

"Well?" Her father asked, nudging the box a little closer. "You gonna open it, or are we just going to sit around all day waiting?"

She looked back down at the box, confused. What could she do with anything from Atlas? She leaned forward, and pulled the lid off the box.

When her eyes met with its contents, she froze, her jaw hanging.

An arm, made of shining, silvery metal gleamed back up at her. She heard both Yang and her father laughing, and her father started speaking again.

"Brand new, state of the art Atlas tech! You know, I thought I was going to have to call in a few favors, pull a few strings, but you earned this one all on your own. Before I even talked to him, General Ironwood already had one of his top scientists working on it. He wanted me to tell you you fought admirably. You should be proud of yourself."

There was a heavy silence as Ruby continued to stare. The box lid fell out of her numb fingers, and as it hit her foot she jumped, blinking.

"I. . . I don't. . ." Her voice cracked, and she stood up, walking over to her father and putting her arm around him. Quietly, he did the same, and gently ruffled her hair. "T-thank you!" Ruby looked up at him as her eyes started to fill with tears again. She buried her face in his shoulder, squeezing as tightly as she could with one arm and continuing to mutter incomprehensibly into his shirt.

He hugged her back, guiding her back to the sofa and sitting down next to her. It took a few minutes for Ruby to calm down enough to stop crying, and when she did, her father scooted a short distance away.

"So, you wanna try this thing on? It's not doing much just sitting there, you know."

Ruby nodded vigorously, turning back to the arm and wrapping her fingers around the shoulder gently. She lifted it from the box, feeling its weight in her hand, looking closely at every joint, every actuation, everything she could see with her naked eye. There were so many moving parts. Even without opening it up, she could feel so much beneath the surface. Thinking about it almost made her head spin, and her father had to give her a small nudge again to bring her back to the present.

"Hey, you alright, kiddo? We can put this off a little, if you want. You know, so you can adjust to the idea or-"

Ruby cut him off, shaking her head and saying, "No, no, I want to do this now. We should do this now. How do you put this thing on?"

Getting the arm on was, as it turned out, a relatively simple matter. Ruby did ask for a little privacy as she did so, and as such had returned to her room. It wasn't more than a few minutes before she had it on, and in seemingly working order. All that was left was to actually turn the arm on. Her finger hovered over the small button, and her breath caught with the strangest trepidation. What would it feel like? Was she ready?

She closed her eyes and held her breath. Again, she could feel the phantom of her arm, hanging at her side, overlapping with the limp mechanical one. It was a funny thought, that the two were in the same place. She couldn't help but giggle at the strangeness of it. Then she stopped herself, took a deep breath, and pushed the button.

There was a small click, and the next thing she knew, Ruby was on her hands and knees, staring at the floor. An electric shock went through every nerve in her body, forcing her eyes wide as the world swam in front of her eyes. It felt as though a jackhammer had taken the place of her heart, but only for a brief moment, and as Ruby started to recover, she noticed that she'd caught herself with her hands. Both of them.

She leaned back, holding her hands in front of her face, side by side, comparing the two of them. One felt normal, and she wasn't sure how the other felt. It had been so long since it had felt anything at all, she was just happy for the moment to stare.

She didn't know how long she sat there, but when she realized that it had probably been longer than a minute, she shook her head and stood up, making liberal use of her new left arm as she did so. It felt good, responsive, strong, and she didn't have any feeling of dullness or loss of sensation. It wasn't even as heavy as she thought it would be. She could stand straight up without needing to compensate for the extra weight. In fact, she found that she was slightly off center from being lopsided for so long.

She started walking out of her room, towards the stairs, sliding her fingers over everything in her path as she went. As she came back into the living room, she held it behind her, hoping to surprise Yang and her father, even though the smile on her face had to tell it all.

They looked over at her as she leaned around the corner, and her father raised an eyebrow. "Well? Does it work? You're happy about some-"

Before he could finish the sentence, Ruby rushed forwards and embraced him for the second time that day, this time with both arms. He hugged her back, and Ruby felt Yang join the hug from the back. She felt like the weight of the world had vanished from her shoulders.

It felt like it was much too soon when Taiyang made to gently push them off, saying, "Alright, I'm happy for you and all, but we shouldn't just stand around here all day. Come on girls, I think this calls for a more impressive celebration, don't you? Let's go down to town, find some junk food or something to pig out on. What do you say, Ruby? Want to make this a little occasion?"

Ruby smiled, but said, "I don't think I should. When I turned the arm on it felt like I was getting tazed. I'm alright now, but it still feels kind of weird. I think I'd rather stay home just in case something like that happens again.."

Her father nodded understandingly, patting her on the shoulder. "Alright. Maybe try getting reaquainted with Crescent Rose. Yang was telling me that you were having some trouble with it."

Ruby nodded, then felt a sinking feeling in her chest. The feeling must have shown on her face, because Taiyang raised an eyebrow, and said, "What's the matter? You don't look so good."

Ruby shook her head for a moment, holding a hand over her mouth, before she choked out "I'm going to have to change everything back! I spent so long try to switch stuff around, to make it one handed!"

She started to shake, covering her face as a strange feeling came over her. Tears streamed down her face, but and she did feel sad, but it wasn't sobs that were wracking her body, it was laughter. The others came forward to help, but she put her back to the wall and slid to the floor before they reached her. She buried her face in her hands, sniffling and giggling to herself.

She felt Yang shake her shoulder.

"Ruby, are you alright? Is something wrong? Is it the arm? Come on, say something!"

Ruby tried to pull her face from her hands, but she could hardly think straight as it was. She could only shake her head as she continued to laugh. After several more seconds of this, she made a few vague gesture towards the door, and forced herself to squeak out a few words.

"Just go. I'll. . . I'll be fine. Just need to. . . calm down. . ."

Yang and her father said a few words to each other that Ruby couldn't hear, before they looked back to her, and her father knelt down beside her.

"Alright, well, we're gonna go then, I guess." He scratched the back of his head, glancing back at Yang. "You have your scroll on you, right?" She nodded as best she could, and he continued. "Alright, if you need anything, call. Actually, if you keep feeling like this for much longer, call anyways, alright?"

Ruby nodded weakly again, and the others bid a worried goodbye before stepping out the door. She was alone again, and after a little while longer of being mid-breakdown, she managed to bring the laughter down to a barely suppressed snicker. She stood again, swaying unsteadily and wiping her face on her sleeve. Every muscle in her body ached, but simultaneously buzzed with a newfound, manic energy. Not only could Ruby move, she had to.

Driven forward by the blend of emotions she'd found, she made her way back up the stairs and into her room. The door slamming open echoed through the house, and Ruby set upon her weapon with a zeal that burned brighter than anything she'd felt in what seemed like forever.

She opened a desk drawer to find Crescent Rose's original blade. She hastily removed the current blade and fitted the original back into place. With the scythe's first click a pain went through Ruby's body and mind. She took a deep breath. It felt like the first one in six months. A second click and Ruby's body went rigid. Her eyes watered up again, and she could only stare at her new arm, every moment filled with fear. Any moment now, she was going to wake up. She was sure of it. She would wake up, and everything would be the same as it had been this morning.

But she didn't. As she stared, everything started becoming brighter, crisper, and seemed to breathe again. She couldn't help but start snickering again as a smile cracked over her mouth, and she opened a different drawer. Her headphones laid there, still coiled up and unused for a long time.

It was probably a good thing that the others were out of the house, because Ruby would have been dreadfully embarrassed if they heard her singing along to her music. She knew her singing voice wasn't any good, especially not with the volume as high as she had it. It was loud enough to drown out everything else. She worked to the beat of the music, giggling and wiping her face of tears every so often.

It wasn't too long before she had Crescent Rose in close enough a condition to before she'd started modifying it that it would be easily usable with both hands again. There were a few little details that still needed to be addressed, but she could get to those later. She wiped her hands of the grease, put her tools back in roughly the right places, and picked the weapon up off the desk.

With a flourish she brandished Crescent Rose, swinging it in as much of an arc as she had room for, careful to keep from breaking anything. It felt exactly like she'd hoped. Ruby started running downstairs, narrowly avoiding carving a huge gash in the wall as she did so. She almost broke the front door off its hinges when she pushed her way out into the yard.

The sunlight gave her a new sense of renewal, as she walked past the small training site in the yard. She felt like she could throw a goliath, and she took a deep breath, enjoying the feeling she'd been missing for so many months. It was a beautiful day. Those didn't last very long on Patch. The weather was unpredictable and sunny days could be drowned in storms in only minutes. It suited her fine, though. She had always thought as a kid that the weather was always moving and changing, just like her.

Ruby came to a stop, standing still in the grass and letting the breeze wash over her. Polin was in the air. Jaune's allergies would have him sneezing hard enough to knock him over. Despite that though, she wished he was here, along with the rest of her friends. Everything bloomed at once on Patch, and she was rewarded with a wonderful sight as she crest over a nearby hill. She smiled wider just a little more as she took another deep breath, enjoying the scent of the blooms welcoming her.

Her breathing became more regular as she dropped into a ready stance, her eyes locked on an imaginary opponent. A beowulf, tall and thin, with knife-like claws and fangs to match, snarling and drooling with eyes that burned like a fire, stood across from her. She could almost hear it snarling at her.

She slipped into almost a trance as she let her training take over, guiding her through stances and strikes as she laid waste to her imaginary foe. When the Grimm had been reduced to little more than a heap of meat, Ruby blinked, and it was gone. She took another deep breath and nodded to herself. She was back. She could fight, and she could win, she was sure of it.

Ruby returned to the house after dispatching a few more imaginary foes, folding Crescent Rose back up and laying it down on the kitchen counter. She hadn't loaded it before taking it out into the yard, and thus hadn't had the opportunity to fire it, but in her room Ruby had more than a few rounds that were ready to go. She didn't want to waste them on nonexistent Grimm, however. Setting up a small shooting range would be easy, but she wanted to take a breather first.

She took a seat next to the scythe, leaning back in the chair and looking down at her left arm again. It was still strange to see it there, but it was more than welcome. There was only one aspect about the arm that bothered her, and that was its shiney grey color. The shine was nice, but she knew that a glint could give her away in a tight situation, something she definitely didn't want to deal with. But more than that, it simply wasn't her color. Ruby knew Yang had to have some spray paint in the shed. She was sure her sister wouldn't mind her using it. Knowing her though, she had to cross her fingers and hope everything but the yellow and black hadn't expired. Ruby was confident that the blue, green, and purple were most certainly gone bad.

It took a while to find anything that wasn't yellow, but when she found a can of red paint, she was delighted to find that it was the same shade she used on Crescent Rose. A can of black paint was much easier to find, Yang used it on Bumblebee anyways. She wouldn't miss a little bit. Ruby didn't need much anyways.

Ruby set about getting her arm painted. She would have time to put intricate designs on it later. For now, she just wanted a flat red coat, with the joints of the arm a darker black than they already were.

She was done in minutes, holding her arm out with a rag ready to stop any drips. Nothing came after a few moments, and she let her arm fall to her side. She didn't care too much if the messy clothes she had on got any more dirty.

As she walked back to the house, something on the path leading away to town caught her eye. Ruby stopped, squinting. It wasn't Yang and her father, neither one was shaped quite right, and there were three instead of two. Ruby tried to make out their shapes, then gasped as she realized who it had to be.

She ran as quickly as she could towards them, waving her arms and shouting, "Hey! Guys! What are you doing here?"

As she came closer, the others started running towards her, shouting out to her and waving in response. Ruby tried to speed up, but she found that after so long of having not made good use of her legs, she couldn't go quite as fast as she wanted. Not accepting the minor defeat, she reached down in herself, and, using her aura, pulled herself forward at an incredible speed.

As the distance closed rapidly, Ruby realized that she had misjudged the distance rather severely. In spite of her best efforts to stop, she struck the center figure, knocking both to the ground.

After a moment of being dazed, she picked herself slowly off the ground.

"Sorry, Jaune! Are you alright?" She offered a hand out to him, pulling him up and rubbing her back with the other hand. "At least you had your armor on, huh? Figures, I get my arm back and break my back on you!"

Jaune nodded vigorously as Ren and Nora chuckled, sand said through a sniffle, "Yeah, I'm fine! And sorry about the breastplate, we just got off a job and I didn't really have anywhere to put it, you know. . ." His voice trailed off, and his eyes drifted down to her left arm.

"Wow! So you really do have your arm back! How does it feel?"

Ren stepped forward, catching Jaune's attention and pointing towards the house. "Perhaps we should continue this conversation inside. We're out of tissues, after all."

Jaune's eyes widened slightly, and he looked over to Nora, saying, "What? I thought you were going to get more!"

Nora put her hands up in the air, exclaiming, "I did, Jaune! You used them all!"

Ruby stifled a laugh as the two started bickering, leading them towards the house. Her back still hurt a little from slamming into Jaune, but it wasn't anything to worry about. She looked the others over as they walked. They all looked well enough, at least they weren't going hungry. Jaune was walking with a little bit of a limp, but she couldn't tell if it was a result of their collision or not. Knowing Jaune, it very well could be. He wouldn't say anything about it.

By the time they reached the front door Jaune was wiping his nose with every other word, and he had dribbles of mucus down the front of his face. Every breath was accompanied by a wet wheezing sound that only made Ruby more eager to get inside, where Jaune would have all the tissue he could need. At least, she hoped, anyways.

As she opened the door, she spoke to the group. "So how is everybody doing? Why didn't you call ahead like you usually do?"

Jaune opened his mouth and started to say "Yang-" but was cut off by a sharp elbow to the ribs from Nora, who shoved him through the door before continuing the sentence for him. "-Is probably going to say the same thing! It was kind of a last minute thing, right, Ren?"

Ren froze for a moment, before nodding and saying, "We got a small job on Patch. It was on very short notice, so we didn't really have time to. I'm sorry, we should have. If now is a bad time, we could-"

Ruby interrupted him. "No, no, no, you don't have to go! It's fine! I was just curious, since my dad usually at least hears about all the Hunter jobs here on Patch. He hasn't said anything about it recently. Where was it?"

Ren took a moment to think, before saying, "In the forest towards the north of the island. We heard that it's normally either Signal recruits or staff that take care of things over there, but for one reason or another no one was available for it. So we got called in, and here we are."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, every so often everyone is tied up in other stuff. It's never too much of a problem, though, because we're so close to Vale. It can be a little inconvenient to get mainland Hunters over here, but the ferry doesn't take too long. Anyways, what was the job? Nothing too dangerous, probably. It's usually just a pack of beowolves that gets a little too big, or starts getting too close to villages. It went well though, it looks like."

Ren and Nora both nodded in response, before turning their attention to Jaune, who was heavily blowing his nose. Ruby felt her throat tighten in disgust as he pulled the cloth away from his face. He pulled a second one, and this time it wasn't quite as revolting as the last one.

"Feel better?" She asked, coming up behind him, trying to keep from looking at the tissue in his hand.

"Much better." He stated, pulling a third tissue to wipe his face clean. He asked for the bathroom so he could wash up, leaving the other three to unwind in the living room. Zewi came bolting out from the hallway, only to start running in excited circles in the center of the room.

"Well he's happy to see us." Nora commented reaching out for the dog, but Zewi didn't stop, letting Nora's hand pet him as he made each lap.

"He'll exhaust himself in a minute or two and be out cold for the next hour." Ruby responded, taking a seat in one of the chairs. "So, Yang and my dad are out right now, but they should be back soon. How are you guys doing?"

The Ren and Nora looked at each other for a moment before shrugging. Ren spoke, saying, "We are doing well. Not much has changed, to be honest."

Ruby leaned back, making sure that Jaune was still in the bathroom, before turning back to them. "How is Jaune holding up? He's keeping everything together, right?"

The others' smiles faded slightly, but both nodded. Nora said "Yeah, he's been doing really well. I don't think he's letting things drag him down. If anything, I think he has a lot of energy from. . . you know. He's putting all that into the jobs we get and training, which is fine, but we've been trying to find something for him to put it into that's a little less intense."

Ruby nodded, but just as she opened her mouth to respond, Jaune came back into the room. Without pausing, Ren pointed at Ruby's new arm, saying, "I like the paintjob on that. It's fresh, I assume?"

Ruby nodded, holding it up for them to see. "It's kind of rough, but there isn't really any paint running or anything, and it's got just the right colors! I'm pretty happy with it. And it works so well! It feels almost the same as my arm did before!"

She made a few motions with the arm, watching happily as the joints bent and moved as easily as her natural one. "It's from Atlas! Top of the line, apparently! It definitely feels like it."

Nora leaned forward, putting a hand out to touch the exterior of the arm. As she ran a finger up the side, Ruby was delighted to find that she felt it the whole way. Nora, however, looked down at her finger, saying, "Oh, right, the paint isn't dry. I'm just gonna clean this off."

As she got back up, Ruby's eyes drifted towards the window. She thought she saw a glimpse of something yellow, but whatever it was disappeared before Ruby could get a good look.

A moment later, the front door burst open, and with a loud yell of "Everybody get crazy!" Yang burst through the door, large cake in hand and several bags hanging from her arms, causing everyone in the room to jump, and Jaune to tip backwards in his chair, hitting the floor with a hard thump.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked, starting to get up.

Yang rushed over to her before she could fully stand, and pushed her sister back into her seat. "We're having a party!" Yang stated, ripping a handful from the cake and smearing it onto Ruby's face.

* * *

Author's Note:

As he always does, Leivve helped a ton with this chapter. Leave a review if you had any thoughts, comments, criticisms, do it.


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